Love at First by Kate Clayborn is a perfect fit for readers who adore lighthearted, slow-paced romances with a strong focus on found family, grief, and enemies-to-lovers tropes, and are looking for a heartwarming story about second chances and the mysterious power of love.

This wasn’t anything special but I had a good time reading it. It was a light and sweet romance, and I do love the idea of love at first sight. I enjoyed the side characters but wasn’t fully invested in the main relationship. Overall it was an easy read but not quite for me!

Love at First is a cute and light read with a sweet plot. I ended up enjoying the side characters more than the mains and wish there was a little more oomph. While the story was sweet, I personally wanted a little more excitement or drama.

This one took me several tries to get into. I am not sure how much I liked it, I think it was okay.

This is the exact kind of rom-com that can't help but make the reader feel good. The main characters are quirky and lovable and you cannot help but cheer them on as you read. It's light, and cute, and has some really adorable moments. Not super remarkable, but definitely worth the read if you want a light and fun romance similar to those written by Christina Lauren.

This is one of my really old ARCs that I never got around to reading on time, even though I absolutely loved Love Lettering by the same author. I'm actually surprised by my average rating. I was expecting to love this book, but there were a few things that just rubbed me the wrong way.

To begin with, I could not suspend disbelief with the whole love at first sight thing. The whole premise of the romance is based on a teenaged Will falling in love at first sight with a random girl who unknowingly threw tomatoes at him. It's love at first sight even though he hadn't seen her face and she didn't notice him either. I understand that the author was trying to go for something magical and whimsical, like Will and Nora were always meant to be, but it just fell out of place and didn't fit in this contemporary context.

When Will meets Nora again 16 years later, it's like he's back to being a teenager all over again. You're telling me this grown man is still affected by the mysterious balcony girl who had thrown tomatoes at him 16 years before? Even though he's never actually seen her? Even though they have barely talked to each other in the present? The man had heart hiccups over a mystery girl he's never actually seen and with whom he barely exchanged 5 words. This is just annoying and unreal to me. I kept thinking that Will needed to go see a heart doctor or something. He's an adult who has changed and experienced life. He's not the same teenager. But the author wants you to think that a love at first sight that started in adolescence continued straight through adulthood even though these two people have never even interacted.

Now that Will and Nora are reunited as adults, we are expected to believe that they are enemies because Nora is against Will renting his newly inherited apartment. I'm sorry, but this is not an enemies to lovers romance lol. Nora just plays a game of "let's convince Will to change his mind with extreme quirky behaviour and kindness." This is not how enemies interact with each other. The neighbourly shenanigans could have been fun if this was an actual enemies to lovers romance. But the formula is so cliche and uninteresting. It doesn't make the quirky neighbours likable, it just makes them annoying. In my opinion, this book would have been a lot more interesting if the love at first sight didn't continue straight into adulthood and if Will and Nora were actual enemies.

The last thing that really bothered me with this book is the entitlement that comes with telling someone what they should or should not do with their apartment unit. It's not like Will owned the entire building and was trying to buy everyone out so he could demolish the building and gentrify the neighbourhood. The man was just trying to make the best out of his inheritance. The neighbours' initial distrust and disdain were uncalled for. It's really not that serious if Will wants to list the apartment for short term renting...please go outside and touch grass if this is your biggest problem in life. If the neighbours are really like family, then why are they not more accepting of the new tenants and welcome them into the family?

To sum it up, I was not convinced that 1) Will fell in love at first sight as a teenager and somehow goes right back to it as an adult, 2) Will and Nora are apparently enemies, and 3) the neighbours had a sensible motivation for preventing Will from renting out the apartment.

I'm actually so mad that I didn't love this book. I really like this author's prose and storytelling style. I know I come across as a hater, but there were actually some really good moments in this book that I loved. Like when Nora had an allergic reaction and Will took care of her. And when Will called her "baby," it actually made me swoon even though I dislike that term of endearment. There are some really good hand touching moments that I loved. I only started getting invested at chapter 8 because that's when the weird neighbour hijinks were over and we got deep into the "getting to know you without any biases" territory. So, while I did have issues with the foundation of this book, it did improve from chapter 8 and on. And that's why I'm giving it 3 stars.

Cue Romeo and Juliet on a slightly less dramatic balcony.

This story is cute, fulfilling, and tender. It’s an almost friends, touches of enemies to lovers, great banter storyline.

Kate has a way of being her characters to life and engaging you in the story. If you’re looking for something as a simple mind pleaser or a break from the heavy this is a good choi e.

This book was just sadly not for me! I was hoping for something different but it turned out to be something I was not expecting, which is okay and I'm sure someone else would love it!

I struggled to finish this book but have loved all of Kate Clayborn's other titles. If this is your first time reading Kate Clayborn I recommend skipping this one and starting with the Once in a Lifetime series.

Love at First was an enjoyable read featuring a romance between a man who inherits an apartment and the woman in the building trying to stop him from renting it out.

Will Sterling never forgot the only visit he took to his estranged uncle's home sixteen years ago or his encounter there with the girl of his dreams. Now Will has unexpectedly inherited his uncle's apartment which he hopes to get rid of as soon as possible. With plans to convert the property into a rental while waiting out the year before he can sell, Will heads to the building to assess the unit. But while there, he encounters a woman two floors above him that brings back the memory of the girl of his dreams. Nora Clarke may be curious about Will but she won't let him ruin her close-knit building with his planned changes. Despite their feud, an undeniable connection forms between Nora and Will that becomes too hard to ignore.

Will grew up with parents who were only interested in each other to the point he was forgotten about most of the time. The way he grew up definitely shaped who Will became as he was worried about turning into his parents to the point he refused romantic relationships. I liked that Will was matter-of-fact and that he didn't let others interfere with his goals. Nora spent her summers growing up with her grandmother as her parents had to travel for their jobs. She eventually moved to the building full time after her grandmother got sick and passed away. Nora struggles a lot with change and she feels she's disrespecting her grandmother's memory by changing anything in the apartment.

Love at First took a while for me to get into and I struggled a lot with the first half of the book. I found Nora and the other neighbors to be overbearing and I didn't like how pushy they were about keeping the building exactly the same. I also didn't like that Will and Nora's encounters were full of bickering as it made it hard to see why they would fall for each other. Eventually, around the halfway point, the pair stopped bickering and the pushback against Will's changes lessened. I started enjoying the book more because of that and there were a lot of great moments in the second half. I loved the scenes where Will and Nora were renovating her bathroom and how it turned into something more. The steamy scenes were well done and I liked the progression of their relationship. I also liked how the pair worked out the issues that popped up near the end of the book and that they didn't let hard feelings get in the way.

Overall while Love at First didn't completely work for me, I still ultimately enjoyed the book.

I unfortunately failed to connect with this book. The character of Nora was just too much for me, and then the whole crew of residents of the building felt a bit too over the top to really allow me to get behind them and root for them. Will is a lovely character, and I kept wondering why he would put up with Nora - it just didn't feel like an organic connection between them, hardly any chemistry at all, and this read a bit too forced for my liking.
Still, Ms. Clayborn writes with beautiful prose and I found myself laughing a few times, but this wasn't enough to make me forget the rest just felt forced

Unfortunately, I could not get into this book and while I loved the first book at the time, my reading tastes/preferences have changed since then and this just did not capture my attention.

Apologies for the late response on this title, and apologies for clogging up an inbox on old titles.

While I am aware it's obvious, I have chosen not to read/review this title.

As always, I appreciate access to titles and look forward to the next one...which I have likely already read based on how long ago this title was published.

Thanks, again.

Sadly I just could not get into this book. It was really slow and didn't grasp my attention.I hope everyone else likes this book because I really think it has potential.

It was definitely Love At First for me! I fell in love with this book pretty quickly and it only got better from there. Will and Nora were delightful and their story, though not without its hiccups, was a joy to read.

Kate Clayborn is such a beautiful writer and I absolutely love her romances. Love at First was no exception and I can't wait to read more from her in the future.

Unfortunately I could not get in to this one. I think my reading tastes are changing. I will update my review if I try and read again.

I felt like this was more of a literary experiment than a book. A sort of assignment the author decided to write that just had to check certain boxes. There was almost no engaging factors, the characters were bland and the chemistry just wasn't there.

Katie Clayborn is a new author to me and she is now an auto buy! Love at First was a great book I absolutely loved it!!!

Tried reading this one and it just was not meant for me. This does not mean that it is not a good book, I just was not in the right place to be reading it and have decided to not try picking it up anytime in the near future.